[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 4520-4521]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        FAILURE TO PASS A BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Connecticut (Ms. Esty) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. ESTY. Madam Speaker, last Friday, this House blew right through 
the statutory deadline to enact a budget resolution.
  Let's set aside, for a moment, the fact that passing a budget last 
Friday was required by law. The real injustice to the American people 
is that Congress has once again failed to fulfill the most basic 
responsibilities that the American people sent us here to carry out.
  A budget is supposed to reflect the values of the American people. It 
should be a roadmap of Congress' plan for supporting working families, 
creating middle class jobs, and strengthening our education system. It 
should be a roadmap for lifting barriers to opportunity, supporting our 
Nation's innovators, and helping startups and small businesses to get 
off the ground. It should be a roadmap for keeping Americans safe at 
home and abroad.
  Now, let's be clear. The proposal that came out of the Budget 
Committee did none of these things. Dismantling Medicare won't improve 
our economic security. Abandoning public schools won't lift barriers to 
opportunity.
  But the way forward is not to simply throw up our hands and abandon 
the budget process entirely. A budget is not a political exercise. We 
don't pass budgets when doing so is easy and walk away from our jobs 
when it gets hard.
  Republicans and Democrats need to come together to craft a budget 
that reflects the priorities of the American people, a bipartisan 
budget that envisions a smarter, leaner government, one that creates 
predictability and support for good-paying jobs and increases 
opportunity for all.

                              {time}  1015

  We need a budget to rebuild America by investing in our 
transportation and infrastructure. I worked very hard to successfully 
pass the 5-year highway bill that was signed into law late last year.
  But according to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the United 
States needs to invest more than $3.6 trillion by 2020 to bring our 
infrastructure up to basic standards.
  Nowhere is this truer than in my home State of Connecticut where we 
have some of the oldest infrastructure in the country and where we rely 
on Federal funding to fix crumbling roads, bridges, and transit 
systems.
  Our budget should encourage innovation and entrepreneurship. 
Connecticut has a long, proud manufacturing tradition. We are home to 
5,000 manufacturers, many of them small and family owned, and I know 
they can compete with anyone if they have a level playing field. We 
need a budget that helps us create one.
  Supporting innovators means investing not just in infrastructure, but 
in infostructure, our electrical grid and the physical building blocks 
of the Internet, which are vital to the success of startups and small 
businesses throughout the country.
  Madam Speaker, in Connecticut and around the Nation, we need a budget 
that invests in STEM education and 21st century jobs, commits to 
growing our manufacturing sector, and provides the resources we need to 
fight the opioid epidemic that is tearing apart so many families.
  The American public wants to see Congress take bold action. Our 
budget should set us on a path to leadership in today's and tomorrow's 
global economy.
  A budget is much more than a statement of principles. It is a roadmap 
to lifting barriers to opportunity. It is an investment in our 
infrastructure and in the research and development we need to power 
21st century careers. It is an investment in the American people.
  It is time that we in this House put our responsibility to the 
American people before partisanship and political games. When the 
people we represent at home stop doing their jobs, they don't get paid.
  In Congress, we should work the same way. We should pass the No 
Budget, No Pay Act because Members of Congress should only get paid 
when

[[Page 4521]]

they do their jobs. If we worked under No Budget, No Pay, I guarantee 
you the House would have passed a budget last Friday.
  So I call on my colleagues. Let's do the job the American people sent 
us here to do. Let's do the job we are paid to do. Let's go to the 
table--Democrats and Republicans--and hammer out a budget that supports 
good-paying jobs, grows our economy, keeps us safe, and truly reflects 
the priorities of the American people.

                          ____________________